My name is Joel Collinsworth “Original Mechanical Mouse,”is my stage name or if you prefer to call it a band name. I’m a third generation singer-songwriter who also writes poetry and fiction.I played music just for my own enjoyment for nearly twenty years before ever playing out, finding a gig, or looking for an audience. Since entering the music scene I’ve performed about a couple hundred times ranging from the first open mics, to charity shows, and paid gigs. For ten-years before ever writing my first song, I tried to become a published novelist. My mother and her father both wrote and sang songs in the folk tradition. Mom said as a teen she sang as “Betty Blue Eyes” on the WLS Barn Dance. (no recordings exist) She said also she sold a song to Roy Acuff. In the first decade of this century I finally caught the folk-music bug becoming inspired by bands like The Shins, Elliot Smith, Fleet Foxes, Bright Eyes, Nick Drake, My Morning Jacket, and a lot of acoustic artists in the modern folk music scene. Hearing honest lyrics about real life from them opened a door in me. I was attracted by the no rules aspect of it. Bands and artists who write from their heart have my eternal gratitude for opening that door. I guess it’s in my genes to reject formulaic music, something inside beckons to create music and write from my heart. I love today’s folk musicians a great deal more for that very reason